How to export a WhatsApp chat from WhatsApp Web or Desktop
Most people who want a WhatsApp chat on their computer look for Export chat in WhatsApp Web or the desktop app first. WhatsApp’s export instructions are written for its phone apps, so the dependable route is to export on your phone and move the file across. It takes a couple of minutes.
Can you export a chat from WhatsApp Web or Desktop?
WhatsApp’s Help Center gives export steps for Android and iPhone. If you do not see Export chat in WhatsApp Web or in the desktop app on Windows or Mac, nothing is wrong with your account: use your phone for the export itself.
There is a second reason to export from the phone. WhatsApp Web and Desktop are linked devices: they show what has been synced from your phone, which may not be the full history of a long chat. Your phone holds the complete copy, so an export made there includes as much of the chat as WhatsApp allows.
Export on your phone, then move it to your computer
- On your phone, open the chat. On Android, tap the three-dot menu, then More, then Export chat. On iPhone, tap the contact or group name, then Export Chat.
- Choose Without media for a small, text-only file, or Include media if you need the photos and voice notes.
- In the share sheet, pick a way to reach your computer. The options below all work.
- On the computer, save the file somewhere you will find it. If it is a ZIP, unzip it: the transcript is the .txt file inside.
- Send it to yourself on WhatsApp. Open your own chat (Message yourself), send the export there, then open that chat in WhatsApp Web or Desktop and click the file to download it.
- Save it to Google Drive, iCloud Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox, then open the same folder on your computer.
- Email it to yourself. This suits text-only exports; an export with media is often too large for an attachment.
- AirDrop it from an iPhone to a Mac, or copy it over a USB cable from an Android phone.
Open the chat on your computer
The transcript is a plain text file. Notepad on Windows and TextEdit on a Mac open it, and so does any browser if you drag the file in. Each line starts with a date, a time, and the sender’s name.
A long chat is hard to read as raw text. To sort or count messages, put it in a spreadsheet. To read it as a conversation, or to send someone one part of it, open it in a chat viewer.
What to avoid
- Printing the WhatsApp Web page. It only captures the messages loaded on screen, and the layout breaks across pages.
- Long runs of screenshots. They are hard to keep in order, and a reader cannot search them.
- Browser extensions that promise to export from WhatsApp Web. They need access to every chat you have open, and WhatsApp does not make or check them. If you use one, check the publisher and its permissions first.
A backup will not put the chat on your computer
WhatsApp’s Google Drive and iCloud backups are for restoring WhatsApp on a phone. You cannot open them on a computer to read the messages. If you want a copy you can open, an export is the right tool.